Copper bull market buoyed by aging legacy mines, says analyst

From Mining.com

You’re seeing as grades get lower, companies will have to increase their capital intensity to pull that production forward because your reserve grades are getting lower; you’re seeing legacy assets now need to be buoyed by new supply, and the cost is still too high to bring new projects online.”

Effectively, millions of tonnes more rock will need to be moved and processed to get the same amount of copper, and according to McGill, that’s the kind of relationship the large miners are seeing right now.